The historic verdict was reached after nearly two days of deliberation in an unprecedented case in which a former United States president was tried on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records.

Donald Trump pictured in the downtown Manhattan courtroom on Thursday after a verdict was reached in his hush money trialCredit: Reuters

Michael Cohen was the last witness called forth by the prosecution in its hush money trial against TrumpCredit: Alamy

Stormy Daniels was on the stand for roughly seven hours, spanning two daysCredit: EPA

Stormy Daniels testified during the third week of Trump's trialCredit: Reuters

Trump sat at the defense table with a glum look on his face, motionless as the jurors read the guilty verdict, The New York Times reported.

The former president will be sentenced on July 11 at 10 am.

"This is a disgrace," Trump, who is now a felon, told reporters after the verdict.

"This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict will be delivered by the people," he added, looking ahead to November's presidential election.

A deflated Trump seemed to have come to terms with the fact that a conviction was inevitable, telling reporters outside the courtroom on Wednesday, "Mother Teresa could not beat these charges."'

"I would say in listening to the charges from the judge, who, as you know, is very conflicted and corrupt because of the conflicting, very, very corrupt," he added.

Despite making previous statements about taking the stand and being threatened by Judge Juan Merchan with being put behind bars for repeatedly violating a gag order, Trump chose not to testify in his defense.

The presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, 77, repeatedly denounced the proceedings, quoting GOP supporters, legal scrollers, and right-wing media news outlets outside the courtroom.

The grueling six-week trial saw prosecutors call forth 20 witnesses, including Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, former publisher of the National Enquirer David Pecker, and adult film star, Stormy Daniels.

Prosecutors argued Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.

In August 2015, two months after announcing his presidential campaign, prosecutors said Trump met with Cohen and Pecker at Trump Tower to hatch a plan to bury negative stories about the candidate to help get him elected.

Pecker testified how he bought and buried two stories about Trump, including one involving an alleged affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal.

McDougal claims she had an affair with Trump between 2006 and 2007, at a time when Melania Trump was pregnant with their son Barron.

"We didn't want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign," Pecker said on the stand.

Then, in October 2016, a month before the presidential election, Trump instructed Cohen to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to silence her about an alleged affair in 2006, prosecutors said.

Trump has repeatedly denied having an affair with Daniels or McDougal.

Stormy Daniels takes to the witness stand against Former President Donald Trump

Cohen used $130,000 of his own funds to keep Daniels quiet.

Throughout the testimonies and evidence presented by the state, the prosecution argued that Trump disguised the reimbursement payments he made to Cohen as legal retainers.

The disbarred attorney, 57, testified how, in early 2017, he met with Trump at the White House and began discussing repayment.

Cohen told jurors that he submitted several false invoices for legal service to the Trump Organization and that the then-president had signed off on monthly checks of $35,000.

Trump, who was present throughout the duration of the trial, sat nearby at the defense table, often grumbling at witness testimony and, at times, closing his eyes.

Daniels, who was born Stephanie Clifford, testified for roughly seven hours during the third week of the trial.

EYE OF THE STORM

The porn star, 45, shared with the jury about her upbringing in Louisiana, how she started in the adult industry, and her first encounter with Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, in 2006.

Daniels testified that she was 27 when she met the then-60-year-old Trump.

She said Trump's bodyguard, Keith Schiller, told her that the real estate mogul was interested in having dinner.

Schiller gave her his contact information, and after she initially rejected the invite, her publicist encouraged her to attend.

The pair had dinner at Trump's hotel room as Daniels disclosed to the courtroom how she spanked the former president "on the right butt" with a magazine.

Daniels testified how Trump's intentions were clear, and the two eventually had sex.

"The intention was pretty clear, somebody stripped down to their underwear and is posing for you," she said on the stand.

"Next thing I know, I was on the bed," Daniels added, saying she could not remember how her clothes came off.

"I had my clothes and my shoes off. I removed my bra. We were in missionary position."

During cross-examination, defense attorney Susan Necheles drilled on Daniels' career as a porn star and attempted to discredit her as a liar.

The defense argued that Daniels fabricated the affair with Trump as a money grab after she secured a $800,000 book contract to sell her story.

Can Donald Trump still be president if he is convicted before the election?

The U.S. Sun spoke to a legal expert on the question of whether Donald Trump can still serve as president if he is in prison.

"If Donald Trump is found guilty, even if he's sentenced to prison, which is unlikely in the New York case, he can still be president," former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The U.S. Sun.

"There's nothing prohibiting a convicted felon from being president of the United States.

"Theoretically, Trump could be in prison and still be president of the United States, earning the Constitution.

"The only requirements are that he be 35 and be born in the United States and not have engaged in an insurrection."

TRUMP GLARES AT COHEN

The prosecution's star witness, Michael Cohen, told the jury that his job at the Trump organization was to do "whatever" the former president wanted.

"The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task, to make him happy," he said.

Cohen served as the former president's attorney from 2006 to 2018 and was an executive vice president of the Trump Organization.

The disgraced attorney testified how he went to great lengths to protect Trump's image after he accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016.

Cohen went into detail about Trump's reported affair with model Karen McDougal and how he paid ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker $150,000 to squash the story of the fling on the orders of the former president.

Trump's defense team tore into Cohen, calling him a convicted felon, liar, and a man out for revenge and money.